Modern man takes the concept of time for granted. We look at our watch to see the time of day. We look at a calendar to see the time of year or the date. Each of these concepts is indicated and monitored by devices or listings that indicate the passage of time with a high level of accuracy. We know that time is rooted in the movement of celestial bodies. The rotation of the earth defines the time of day; the revolution around the sun defines the time of year. From some perspectives, these constitute the essence of time. These movements create day and night and create summer and winter.
To modern man, the time of day is usually one of the most important time concepts. Regardless what calendar month it is, most persons can stay warm and can buy groceries. Our immediate activities are usually governed at the relatively micro level, the time of day. However, to early man, the time of day or the micro level of time was far less important than a macro level of time, namely, the time of year. Planning for the very activities necessary for survival such as planning for food and planning for warmth did not depend on meeting an appointment or the time of day. Planting and other activities needing to be anticipated or carried out depended far more on the macro level of time, the time of year than on micro level of time, the time of day.
While almost no one in modern society operates without some sort of timepiece, perhaps a watch, cell phone, or PDA, early man could only rely on the position of celestial bodies such as the sun and the stars. As a result, horological devices developed. Frequently, these were sundials or similar types of items. In fact, early sundials trace their roots back to approximately 5000 BCE. The relationship between keeping time and celestial events grew from this and even included the positions of stars and the like in early times. For instance, an artifact known as the Nebra sky disk indicated some level of astrological knowledge as early as approximately 1600 BCE. Astrolabes, and other devices that could indicate some types of time, existed by about 200 BCE. As these types of devices indicated early man realized a relationship between celestial events and at least time of day events.
Certainly there are obvious differences between night and day that made micro levels of time immediately evident. The position of this sun gave early opportunities to permit shadow indications to be used to display a time of day. Devices that utilized shadow indications have existed for years and improvement have continued even into modern times. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,158 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,853 use shadow indications to show times of day. This is perhaps more common for traditional sundials. U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,407 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,212 involve both time and date indications by shadow positioning. They do not, however, provide indication in the manner of the present invention or accomplish the transient type of sun rise indications desired for embodiments of the present invention. Even the calendar date shadow indications on U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,054 are accomplished in a more traditional way, namely, by using shadow indications on an analema which is unlike the present invention.
To grasp the context of the present invention, the importance of a calendar understanding to prehistoric man needs to be understood. If any one person had the ability to understand if seasons were about to change in one direction or another, or if it was an appropriate time to plant certain crops, they may have possessed a status of reverence and awe to those that did not understand what we take now take for granted. In fact, from some perspectives may be likely that calendar time was far more important than a time of day for the latter has an obvious rough indication often available, namely, the position of the sun at that particular time of day. Indeed, it would have been a significant benefit to be able to track calendar time even in a rough degree before the knowledge of a calendar or the like. In fact, it may have appeared that individuals who had an understanding of calendar time, may have held a shaman-like stature within that early society. It is even likely that those individuals who developed an understanding of the relationships between celestial bodies, and calendar timing as it may relate to the change of seasons might have maintained their understanding as proprietary in some manner, and maybe even have utilized it as what we now regard as a trade secret to provide them more significant stature within that society or to foster a shaman presence.
The present invention shows several types of horological devices. These devices could have been developed even by early man to monitor and understand calendar time on a macroscopic scale. One could even consider the present devices as more of a discovery than an invention, for they could be considered as a revelation of knowledge held secret for many years and even millennia. The discoveries presented in this technical disclosure and explanation have been gleaned and discovered from interpreting stone artifacts uncovered that had long concealed the secrets manifested. By reverse engineering these furtive concepts, the present inventors show how revered shamans might have held and developed their understandings. In keeping with the goal of protecting inventions and discoveries, the present technical explanation discloses concepts that might have been maintained undiscovered from perhaps the estimated time of the catalyst artifacts, namely, about 1500 BCE. Through developing how such artifacts might have served even a select contingent of early man, the inventors have developed understandings by which even early man might have been able to monitor calendar time in relation to the movement of celestial bodies. Surprisingly, the present invention shows how devices could easily have been configured to mislead or could have been configured so as to not reveal their true purpose and might intentionally have been designed to conceal the use of a transient occurrence or other indication to achieve an intended purpose. To the uninitiated, the devices can present themselves as some sort of cutting, opening, or splitting device while otherwise being available and used for a true, perhaps concealed, horological purpose.